The Official IshidaKamiya Camping Trip
by Jack Of Some Trades
Summary: A nice, calm camping trip with best friends. Sounds innocent enough, right? Well, you're assuming a lot.
1. Chapter One: Harley

No one was particularly shocked when Kari and TK announced their relationship. Everyone knew very well that they were well on their way to a relationship from the time TK moved back to Odaiba. Their shared camping trip was not so much a cause as a catalyst.

However, the two weren't the only individuals who went. They very nearly were, though. Davis didn't go, as he was grounded for doing something to Jun's pudding. Ken and Yolei preferred to have their own vacation of sorts. Cody felt he would miss far too much Kendo practice, and we all know how Izzy hates being separated from his computer. Sora had a tennis tournament that placed her out of the trip, and Joe was, as usual, studying. But who does this leave?

~*~

Tai and Matt threw their bags into the back of Matt's car (baby, as he called it) and Matt gently closed the door. Tai rolled his eyes at his friend. "Matt, this is a _Jeep_. They're not meant to be babied. They're meant to be driven full throttle through muck, slime, and whatever happens to be in the way."

Matt ignored Tai, as he had quite efficiently done for seven years, and hopped in. "Where is your sister and why is she keeping my brother?" he asked, looking at his watch. "I want to get to the campgrounds before sunset."

"How should I know where Kari is? It's not my day to watch her," he replied, brushing his hair out of his eyes. "Besides, if anyone's doing the keeping, it's TK. Maybe they decided to go over safety procedures and shared some body heat, if you know what I mean."

"I always know what you mean. You're hardly subtle. Maybe Kari asked TK's opinion on a bikini and his head exploded."

"Or maybe," a forceful feminine voice interrupted, "they decided to listen to their brothers discuss them and their non-existent sex lives."

Tai's eyes grew wide as he turned to face his sister and her best friend. "Heh… yeah, maybe." He looked positively petrified.

Matt, on the other hand, was his normal cool self. "Hey, you're here. Head intact, TK?"

"Nope," TK responded.

"Good. And here we go, the Ishida-Kamiya Camping Trip has officially begun!"

A few moments silence, then Tai's complaint of "Hey, why does your name go first?"

Which was quickly countered by "It's my car."

To which Tai retorted "Only because you refused to get in mine."

"That's not a car. That's a bomb on four wheels."

"It's in no worse condition than yours was when you first got it!"

"Maybe, but the difference is that I waited to fix mine before I drove her."

"Name one thing wrong with my car that affects how it works."

"Hmm, let me think on that one," Matt said sarcastically. "Hey, how about the fact that it doesn't have a _brake pedal_?"

Tai scoffed. "Who needs brakes anyway? They only slow you down."

~*~

Meanwhile, since they couldn't speak over their brothers without yelling, and their messages wouldn't be heard anyway, TK and Kari took to writing each other on a notebook that TK had the foresight to bring.

****

This trip is going to be fun, TK wrote.

__

It is. Assuming they stop fighting for any length of time, Kari responded.

****

It's just their weird way of showing affection for one another. I don't try to understand it.

__

It's probably healthier that way.

Neither TK nor Kari could think of anything in particular to say to each other, and their pen sat motionless on the paper. Finally, TK picked it up.

****

So, that stuff Tai and Matt was talking about…

__

Yeah?

****

Crazy, huh?

Yeah. Crazy. Not to say that you're not someone good enough to do that kind of stuff with.

****

Of course not. I'm sure you're devastating in a bikini.

Kari giggled and blushed a bit, as did TK. Their brothers had moved on to who would kick whose ass, Inuyasha or Spike from _Cowboy Bebop_.

__

They must really care about each other.

****

Well, they've been best friends for… wow, even longer than we have.

__

When they weren't trying to kill each other, of course.

****

They haven't done that in years months weeks.

__

Hours?

****

Yeah.

They sat in comfortable silence for a bit, then finally TK picked up the pen again.

****

Just what did Davis do to Jun's pudding?

~*~

"Are we there yet?"

"No Tai, not yet. And she took on the _Fight _Card. The Fight Card!"

Matt and Tai had moved on to another fictional character argument: Meiling vs. Akane.

"Whatever dude, Akane's been training most of her life."

"So's Meiling. And we're here."

"Finally!" As Matt parked, Tai practically leapt from the car and stretched his legs. "Oh man, sweet, sweet land."

Matt turned to tell TK and Kari that they'd arrived when he saw them asleep, Kari's head on TK's chest with his arm around her shoulder. "Tai!" he hissed to his friend, who was dancing with a tree. "Come look at this!"

Tai walked over, not bothering to keep his voice down. "What? This had better be something important, I don't think my legs can b—" Whatever he was going to say was covered by Matt's hand.

"Shh! Take a look. And stay quiet!" Tai rolled his eyes and looked in on the sleeping couple. He grinned underneath Matt's hand and had the urge to say "Awww!"

Matt removed his hand from Tai's face and dug around in one of his bags for his camera. This would make good blackmail evidence. Or fodder for a marriage album in the future. Whichever happened first.

As soon as Matt had snapped his pictures, Tai, stifling a giggle, opened TK's door and shouted, "TAKAISHI! HANDS OFF MY SISTER!"

With a cry of surprise, TK jumped and, Kari having already sat up, fell out of the car, half-tangled in his seat belt. Matt still had the camera in his hand, but had it hidden behind Tai, whose shoulder he was using for support to keep from falling on the ground laughing. TK glared at them, though he was upside-down and red from embarrassment and the blood rushing to his head. "Very funny," he muttered.

"It is!" Tai replied, clutching his sides.

TK finally unbuckled himself, with some help from Kari, who was at least as red-faced as he was, and fell flat on the ground, which sent Tai and Matt into a whole new wave of laughter. TK grinned sheepishly and stood up.

Kari walked over and, after stopping to pick up TK's hat, said, "You know, that wasn't really… wow."

"Wasn't wha?" Tai asked, staring off in the direction Kari was. "Wow."

Matt stopped laughing and remembered just why he wanted to get here before sunset. "Yeah. Wow." He threw his arm over Tai's shoulder. "Why must you always doubt the Great Yamato?"

The four of them stood admiring the sunset in awed silence, until the sun finally disappeared behind the horizon. Matt, having realised his proximity to Tai, drew away quickly, as did TK with Kari, who had been more or less in his arms during the whole sunset.

~*~

The four wandered vaguely into the forest and chose a small clearing to set up camp. TK and Kari, who claimed innocence, ended up right next to each other, while Tai and Matt set their tents up far enough to give the couple privacy, but not so far, under Tai's insistence, to give them too much privacy.

The next day, unbeknownst to them, would be full of firsts for all. Except Harley, the Jeep. She's more or less out of the next chapter.

**__**

Ah, my first and thus-far only Digimon fic. Feel free to review, flame me for liking Takari and Taito (you hadn't figured that out yet? Oops) or toss me into your favourites lists.


	2. Chapter Two: The Tops of Adventure

**__**

Disclaimer: I'm very tired, so I'll just skip over the customary disclaiming joke and get on with the story, all right?

Tai Kamiya, despite being notoriously hard to awaken at home, was up with the sunrise during on the second day of their vacation. Perhaps it was the lack of comfort on the cold, hard earth, or perhaps it was a desire to not miss a moment of being there. Or perhaps it was the fact that he had to pee really, really badly.

Whatever the reason, earth, desire, or pee, up rather early was the young Taichi. Kari and Matt, who had to listen to their brothers' snoring, were also up rather early. Matt was already cooking breakfast, which consisted of hot dogs over an open fire.

TK was up at about ten, and greeted everyone rather cheerily. Tai, who wasn't a morning person, meaning he wasn't tolerable until noon, grunted. "So, what are we doing today?" TK asked, snatching a hot dog from the fire and tossing it from hand to hand to cool.

"I don't know," replied Kari, who was trying to keep Tai from taking her hot dog straight off her stick. "What do you want to do?"

"I dunno."

Tai grunted again, and speared three franks to thrust into the fire.

"I just assumed," Matt stated, "that, being the first full day, we would do something completely fun and utterly unproductive. Wanna go swimming?"

Kari and TK agreed whole-heartedly, while Tai merely grunted in the affirmative.

They arrived at the lake at about twelve thirty, by which time Tai had realised that he was awake and his tongue worked. He dove from a rather large rock before bothering to shed his outer clothes. Matt and TK both were excited to be there themselves, but they held back long enough to remove their pants.

TK, however, didn't rush in immediately. He got… distracted. "Wow," he whispered, as Kari stood ready to dive. He'd been right; Kari did look devastating in a bikini.

By this time, Tai's pants were drying in the sun, his shirt had been flung at a tree, and he was trying to outdo Matt in terms of splashdown.

"Boo!" Matt yelled from the water. "The Great Yamato will do better than that!"

"Calling yourself the Great Yamato doesn't make it true, you know! The Mighty Taichi knows this!" Tai said as he surfaced.

"The Mighty Taichi can kiss the Great Yamato's ass!" Matt retorted. They started splashing one another, then started wrestling. Somehow, despite the fact that the water was cold enough to give a person a brain freeze if he drank it too fast, neither noticed the cold.

~*~

TK and Kari had started to have a swim race on the other side of the lake, far away from the diving rock. TK was in the lead, but just barely. Soon Kari took over, and got ahead considerably, but for some reason TK didn't mind. Perhaps it was the fact that their friendship had evolved beyond competition, or perhaps he just liked his view.

Kari stopped rather suddenly. So suddenly, in fact, that TK didn't know it before he crashed into her. TK thought she'd stopped because of their proximity to the shore, but felt that it was something more pressing.

Kari went behind TK and wrapped her arms around him. "Help me," she said quietly.

"What is it?"

"I've lost my top," she said. TK could almost hear the blush in her voice.

"Um…" Two parts of TK fought for control at this point. One was an instinct he'd had for as long as he'd known Kari, telling him to protect her. The other, a more recent addition to his psyche, was telling him that she was pressing her bare breasts against his skin, what was he going to do about it? "Where'd you lose it?" _Damn,_ said the hornier part of his brain.

Kari loosened her grip slightly as she looked around. TK saw Kari's finger point at a black shape floating farther away from the shore. "There," she said decisively.

TK almost whimpered as he felt Kari back away from him, her arms going around her chest. Sighing, he swam to the offending garment and grabbed it before something further could happen to it.

He swam back quickly and handed it to Kari. Always the gentleman, even against his own free will, he turned away as she put it back on. "Okay," she said. "But could you make sure it's tied this time?"

The same part of TK's brain that had been yelling at him for actually getting the top was now begging him to loosen it. _Cold water. Basketball. Cold water. Basketball,_ repeated the more lucid parts of his mind as he double-knotted the bikini.

"Thanks," she said. "You think we should head back now?"

"Sure," TK replied. He moved to go across the lake again, but Kari stopped him.

"It'll be easier if we just go around," she said, motioning towards the woods.

TK looked from the girl to the woods and back to Kari. "You're sure?"

"Of course."

~*~

"I'm _hungry!_" whined Matt for the nineteenth time. "Why did I let you get me lost?"

"I'm not lost!" Tai replied over the noise of his stomach. "I'm just… misdirected."

"Right. Infamous Kamiya sense of direction, I suppose."

They'd been walking in the woods searching for the lost camp for hours. Matt had very foolishly allowed his friend to take the lead. "You were half-asleep on the way. How would you remember? What was I _thinking_?"

"Shut up." In truth, Tai likely would have been lost whether or not he'd been awake. His idea of a map was a list of places that you might see in some random order sooner or later. "I know exactly where I'm going."

"I hope you're not using the logic of, 'If I go the same way long enough, I'll be going out,'" Matt said. This stopped Tai in his tracks.

"I think I need a new plan," he said. Matt sighed.

~*~

"We're lost, aren't we?"

"Don't be crazy, TK. I'm not my brother, after all."

TK looked around him and saw nothing recognisable. "We're lost, aren't we?"

"I think so, yes."

**__**

This story is coming along very slowly, so I apologise. Oh, and I received my very first flame from a reviewer! On this story, too. You know what they say, if no one hates you, you're not trying hard enough.


	3. Chapter Three: Lost and Found

**__**

STANDARD FORM OF DISCLAIMATION  
  
The characters from the canon DIGIMON ADVENTURE are not the property of the writer of this story. HE is VERY POOR. Suing would be POINTLESS.

The two intrepid adventurers Kamiya and Ishida wandered through the woods blindly. Matt had resigned to letting Tai take the lead, not because of his skills, but because of his unbelievable luck with this kind of thing. Unfortunately, that particular luck seemed to be failing him.

"You know what, Tai?" Matt said finally.

"Probably," Tai replied.

Matt ignored him. "You've probably made us more lost," he said, brushing still-wet hair out of his eyes. His hair was messy and he didn't like it that way.

"How could I do that?" Tai asked. He had no need to brush his hair away, as it naturally returned to its usual shape when exposed to air.

"Because I just saw that tree!" Matt exclaimed.

"See? We're not lost then. Already seeing familiar sights."

Matt closed his eyes, muttered a few words, and went to bang his head against said familiar tree. "I… should… kill… you… and… put… a… want… ad… in… the… paper… for… an…_ intelligent…_ best… friend," he said between the moments in which his head met the bark.

"What are you insinuating?" Tai asked angrily.

"You're an idiot!"

"Who's more foolish? The fool or the fool who follows him?" Tai retorted smartly.

"You make a valid point." With that, Matt went the direction Tai wasn't going and promptly fell from view.

"Look out for the root," said Tai.

"Thanks." Matt sat up and checked his leg to make sure it wasn't broken. He winced slightly when he poked it.

"You okay?" Tai asked.

"Fine. Just a bruise, I think." 

Matt moved to stand and found Tai's hand in front of his face. "Need help?" Tai asked. Matt took his friend's hand and started to stand up. However, his foot had moved under the root again, and both Tai and Matt fell to the ground, tangled together quite nicely.

~*~

"Okay, maybe if we go in one direction," said Kari, "we'll end up out of the woods."

"Somehow I think if it were that easy we wouldn't be lost," said TK. He was looking around for some significant landmark so that if they were walking in circles, he'd know. _Let's see… tree, tree, rock, tree, mud, dirt, tree…_

~*~

"So," Matt said, inches away from Tai's face. "Maybe one of us should be getting up?"

Tai didn't respond for a while, then he finally said, "Probably."

~*~

__

…tree. Well, so much for that.

"You're right," said Kari. "But I don't have any better ideas."

TK's eyes fell on a fallen stick near a large patch of mud. He picked it up and wrote:

TT

+

HK

"What's that?" asked Kari.

"Takeru Takaishi and Hikari Kamiya. That way, if we come back, we'll know we've been here before," said TK.

"Good idea," Kari admitted. "Not that it helps the problem with knowing which way is out."

~*~

Both Tai and Matt finally tore themselves away from each other. It might have been Matt's imagination, but he felt distinctly colder than he had before he'd fallen.

~*~

Hours later, TK and Kari were no closer to finding the camp, or even the lake. And with walking in swimming clothes for several hours on one meal consisting of burnt hot dogs, neither teen was particularly happy.

"Is it me, or did it get suddenly cold?" asked Kari.

"Not suddenly, but yeah," replied TK. "I think it's about nightfall." Neither wanted to say it, but they both knew that setting up camp was a very distinct possibility.

"We're not going to get out of here tonight," said Kari.

"Probably not," agreed TK. "There's probably some dry wood around here somewhere, so we should probably start a fire."

"You say 'probably' a lot when you're nervous, did you know that?"

"Probably," he grinned, despite the situation, and started to gather dry leaves and such for kindling.

It wasn't long before they had a fire started that wasn't so much roaring as growling somewhat threateningly. The both of them, still clad in a wardrobe that would make much of an appearance in a certain type of horror movie, were practically on top of it.

~*~

"You know, Matt…" Tai started.

"Yeah, I know Matt," Matt replied, looking at the path before him and hoping that for once they were on the right track.

"Well, it's a big forest," said Tai. "And there's always a chance we could get separated."

"Yep," said Matt. He decided to retreat to his world of sarcasm and one-word answers until he knew _exactly_ what Tai was talking about.

"So since we don't have any rope or anything… maybe we should just, you know, hold hands?" It was, Matt would reflect later, the most pathetic thing he'd ever heard. And what happened next was the second most.

"Sounds like a great idea to me."

~*~

The fire was dying when TK half-woke. He looked around blearily and saw Kari, not far from him, shivering. Had he been in a different state of mind, he would have rebuilt the fire. However, that logic took a holiday. "Kari's cold," he muttered as he lay next to her. He wrapped his arms around her and tried to increase his body temperature, but he fell asleep before his plan could succeed.

~*~

Matt and Tai refused, out of either stubbornness or stupidity, to fall asleep in the woods. They kept walking past midnight, and soon…

"Tai?"

"Matt?"

"Do you see what I see?"

Tai was too tired to look around, but nodded. "Yep. A tree. You know, I Spy is a crappy game in the middle of the woods."

"Not that, you idiot," Matt snapped. "_Harley!_"

Sure enough, Matt's baby was there, in all its beat-up glory. "That means that we can find camp!" Tai exclaimed gleefully. "I wonder what your brother has been doing to my sister in the time we've been away." He paused a minute to think. "Actually, I don't wonder. Ew."

They followed the path to where they'd set up camp. It was still more or less intact, but it seemed to be missing something. Two somethings. Two somethings of considerable importance to the destiny of the universe. "Where's TK and Kari?" Matt and Tai asked at the same time.

"I don't know, I've been with you!" they responded.

"I know that!" retorted the pair.

Tai started to speak again, but Matt put his hand over his friend's lips. The hand, that is, that wasn't still holding Tai's hand. "Look. I'm exhausted. They've been separated in more dangerous environments than this. I think they'll be able to make it until tomorrow." Tai thought, or whatever it is Tai does with his mind, and nodded. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, or maybe it was the sheer simple joy of being back, but he wanted nothing more than to get some clothes on, snuggle into his sleeping bag, and fall asleep next to his best friend.

"Good," said Matt. He walked away from Tai, ignoring the sudden feeling of loss originating from his fingers, and grabbed his and Tai's bags. Keeping his own, he tossed his friend the other and moved behind a tree to dress.

While he was pulling a shirt on, he heard Tai call, "Matt?"

"Yeah?"

"About what happened in the woods…"

__

What did happen in the woods? Matt thought. "Uh huh?"

"What _did_ happen in the woods?"

Neither of them spoke for a few minutes and they both stood on opposite sides of the camping area, thinking. "Probably time for bed. We've got to try to find Kari and TK in the morning," one of them said. It doesn't particularly matter which.

"Yeah," said the other. They took their sleeping bags, and, moving perhaps a tiny bit further away than was particularly necessary, they fell asleep.

**__**

Awkwardness abounds, eh? Alas, such is the life of a Digi-Destined in a romance.

Stay tuned for more romance, awkwardness, Taito, and Takari in the next "The Official IshidaKamiya Camping Trip!"


End file.
